What You Need to Know About Smart Home Hubs

More and more devices today are being sold as having ‘smart’ capability, which means that they can connect to and be controlled from the internet. But what is the best way to control your smart devices? Many people are choosing to do so with some type of home hub.

Internet of Things devices allow us to control many of the features of our homes, like lighting, heating, surveillance cameras and even locks. But you need a way to bring the management of all these things together and that’s where hubs come in.

Wireless connection

Most hubs now use wireless connectivity, so they can connect to your router and to all of the other devices you have in your home. Often, these are in the form of speaker devices like the Amazon Echo or Apple Home Pod. They allow you to control your devices like smart light bulbs and more. You can also have a software hub running on a computer or mobile device if you prefer.

Increasing numbers of devices now offer connectivity, so if you are considering a new boiler installation Gloucester suppliers can fit devices like thermostats and programmers that you can control remotely. Being able to turn the heating down with a simple voice command is undoubtedly convenient. Of course, because there’s a connection to the internet, you can also turn your heating on and off from your smartphone when you are out and about.

Compatibility

The key thing when shopping for a home hub is to ensure that it’s going to be compatible with your other smart devices. While older devices would quite often have needed a particular make of hub to work, the trend is increasingly for manufacturers to make their devices compatible with a range of popular hub devices. If you already have a hub, make sure your Gloucester Boiler Installation supplier is aware of this and can ensure your smart controls are compatible.

Once you have a hub installed, it’s always worth ensuring that its software is kept up to date, as manufacturers frequently add new capabilities that allow more devices to connect and open up extra features for existing ones. This updating is also important in order to keep your home network secure and prevent unauthorised access to your devices.